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Monday, February 11

Closing 65 Propels Snedeker to 5th Tour Win

BRANDT SNEDEKER FELT IT WAS JUST a matter of time before he won. He was coming off two consecutive runner-up finishes and five top-three finishes in his last eight starts. Why wait any longer? Why put off the seemingly inevitable?

So Snedeker, the co-leader with James Hahn after 54 holes of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, played on Sunday like a man on fire. He was 5 under after the first seven holes on a stunning Pebble Beach day and went on to shoot a 65 for a two-shot win over Chris Kirk. Sneds now has five PGA Tour victories.

"I definitely didn't want to do anything but win today," Snedeker said. "I was out there for one purpose and one purpose only, and I was extremely focused all day. I did a great job of staying patient and I did a great job of playing the golf course the way you're supposed to play it."

The pressure of the 54-hole lead and winning didn't phase the Nashville native.

"I felt like I had nothing to lose," he said.

"I've gotten off to a great start this year. I had not won yet but I had complete faith I was going to, whether it was today or next week or the week after. I was very calm today. I was not jumpy at all. I had [the] same feeling I had at East Lake. I just had a good feeling that today was going to be my day."

With the win, Snedeker moves to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking and is atop the FedEx Cup Standings. He looks forward to contending at the majors, including the Masters in April.

"I know that if I play the way I played the last three weeks that there's very few people in the world that can beat me, and I will relish that challenge being there Sunday trying to beat the best player in the world or whoever it may be down the back nine at Augusta. That's something I look forward to instead of dreading maybe four years ago."Mediate Wins Debut

It's good to be young again.

Powered by a course-record 61 in the second round, new 50-year-old Rocco Mediate won the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Florida, his Champions Tour debut.

"I'm ecstatic," Rocco said. "I have been saying all week it's never easy."

2 comments:

It's about time people started to notice Brandt Snedeker. He has been the hottest golfer in the world the past 6 months but no one has noticed until now. I really think this will be a special year for him and see him winning or contending in the majors this year.

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